Name Demetrius Eucaerus Died 88 BC | Parents Antiochus VIII Grypus | |
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Grandparents Cleopatra Thea, Demetrius II Nicator Great-grandparents Cleopatra II of Egypt, Demetrius I Soter, Ptolemy VI Philometor Similar People Antiochus XI Epiphanes, Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, Cleopatra Thea, Cleopatra Selene I, Ptolemy VIII Physcon | ||
Demetrius III (died 88 BC), called Eucaerus ("well-timed" possibly a misunderstanding of the derogative name Akairos, "the untimely one"), Philopator and Soter, was a ruler of the Seleucid kingdom, the son of Antiochus VIII Grypus and his wife Tryphaena.
Biography
By the assistance of Ptolemy IX Lathyros, king of Egypt, he recovered part of his father's Syrian dominions ca. 95 BC, and held his court at Damascus, from where he tried to enlarge his dominions. To the south he defeated the Maccabean king Alexander Jannaeus in battle, following an assistance request of Jewish rebels, but the hostility of the local Jewish population forced him to withdraw. While attempting to dethrone his brother, Philip I Philadelphus, he was defeated by the Arabs and the Parthian Empire, and taken prisoner. He was kept in confinement in Parthia by Mithridates II until his death in 88.